Accident & Emergency ‘worst week ever’ as winter flu spreads

Emergency rooms in UK hospitals experienced an unprecedented crisis this week, failing to meet a record number of their targets, with patients waiting hours for treatment. Nearly half of people in a recent survey think NHS care is deteriorating.

Recent figures show
that, in the week to December 14, less than 90 percent of
patients were seen within four hours of arrival in NHS hospitals
in England. The official target percentage is 95, but only six
A&E units out of 140 met the criteria.

Of the 400,000 patients treated in A&E last week, 89.9
percent were seen within four hours. The figures also showed that
“trolley waits” – waits over four hours for a bed after
the decision has been made to hospitalize a patient – reached
over 10,000 for the first time ever.

In Wales and Northern Ireland, performance is reported to have
been even worse.

While A&E services struggled meet targets, the rest of the
NHS has reported increased pressures across a range of services
due to a spike in winter ailments such as flu.

Extra funds have been released across trusts in England, Wales,
Scotland and Northern Ireland in attempts to tackle the growing
pressure, but targets continue to be missed.

Dr Barbara Hakin, of NHS England, said there had been significant
increases in the number of people admitted to A&E.

“We have admitted more people to hospital this week to take
care of them than in any previous week on record. I want to pay
tribute to the staff dealing with that – they are doing a
brilliant job,” she said.

“While we are now below the extremely high waiting time
standards that we set ourselves, the service we provide remains
robust.”

She continued to praise the service for having the best waiting
times “for any major country that measures them.”

“As we come into the holiday period, it is important people
continue to look after themselves and nip problems in the bud.
They should ensure they have proper medication, get their flu jab
if they have not done so, and get advice from their
pharmacist,” she said.

News of the poor A&E performance comes as a survey conducted
by ComRes and ITV News found that 45 percent of UK residents feel
that the quality of care in the NHS is getting worse.

The survey also found that 46 percent of 2,069 adults surveyed
think easy access to locally provided services such as GPs was
deteriorating.

A further one in four of respondents claimed they had experienced
“unacceptably poor” levels of care when treated by the
NHS.

A large proportion of people polled thought the public health
service didn’t get enough support from the government – around 65
percent.

Last week the NHS launched its Winter Project, which aims to
collect data from units around the country in order to monitor
its performance.